3,413. Workers Who Cut Deals

Hilchos Maaser 5:8

Similar to the case in the previous halacha, if some people were sitting by the gate or in a shop and an unlearned person offered them some produce to eat, they may do so without tithing it, but the owner of the gate or of the store may not eat it until he has rectified it in the manner one does for doubtfully tithed produce. This case is as if the unlearned person told them to take the produce home because these places are like houses. As has already been discussed, bringing produce through someone else’s house doesn’t obligate one in tithes.

Hilchos Maaser 5:9

Let’s say that someone hires workers to work with him on his produce, whether detached from or still attached to the ground. Since, under Biblical law, the workers have the right to eat from the produce with which they are working, they may do so without tithing it. But what if the workers made a contract that allowed them to eat produce that the Torah does not entitle them to, such as if a worker cut a deal that his son could also eat from the produce, or that his son could eat from the produce as the worker’s pay, or that he could keep eating the harvested produce after the work is done? In such a case, he may not eat the produce before tithing it. Since he is only able to eat the produce because of the deal he made, he is like a buyer.